


It's Just a Little White Lie

by thegoodthebadandthenerdy



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crooked Kingdom information was used in the making of this fic, F/F, Gymnast!Inej, I mean its basically the books but here they have curfews, M/M, Pansexual Nina Zenik, Tags to be added though the rating will stay the same, This fandom needs a v long fic and im here to deliver, jesper is an archer instead of a gunslinger
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 05:05:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9306542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegoodthebadandthenerdy/pseuds/thegoodthebadandthenerdy
Summary: The Crows are seven misfits who seemingly have no ties to one another aside from the shady after-school club they're in, but they share more than many will ever know. Their combined penchant for trouble will probably get them all killed or suspended one day, but until then, they've got work to do.





	1. Introductions

**Author's Note:**

> The working summary for this was "theyre like the scooby gang but with less monsters and more punching people in the face"

It starts with bold words. With taunts and tears and fumbling fingers. With ruddy curls and gray eyes and sharp wit and gloved hands and murmured prayers and unspoken oaths.

It starts with getting backed into a corner. With secrets and lies and losses. With anger and fear and sadness. Capable fingers and picked locks and ballasts that hum after days of no use.

It starts with sharp jaws and no mercy and keen minds. With intellect and hidden gems and games always being in favor of the underdog.

It starts with a wild fire named Nina. An unbreakable spirit named Inej. A lost boy named Wylan. A hopeless yet still hopeful soul named Jesper. A force to be reckoned with named Kaz. A scarred and scared boy named Matthias.

It starts with kids, with people who can't even legally smoke or drink or buy lottery tickets, that are pushing through days and weeks and lives that would make even the most hardened of their elders shudder.

It starts with 6 but it ends with more and less in ways that it would take years to list. 

First it starts in a classroom, at the end of a hallway. With baggage that darkens doorsteps, but unsure smiles that make everything feel kinda okay for the first time in a long time.

It starts with lanky limbs and big ears and soft faces. With questioning brows and easy conversation and underlying worry. It starts with a table and paper and reluctantly finding a place amongst ranks that were made of draftees.

It starts with tiptoes and near death experiences and loud curses, but even louder laughs. With trust issues and other issues and slowly coming to terms with the celestial hands that have been dealt.

It starts with hope. 

It ends with.

Well.

Life.

It ends with life.

Life that gets in the way and life that takes and life that snarls. Life that fights and life that prays and life that knows to stay down but gets back up anyway.

It starts like this and it ends the same, but not before everything else happens.


	2. Inej

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a town like this, there's always tricks to be played, jobs to be done, and secrets to be found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from The Lumineers' "White Lie" (a complete and total SoC song tbh)

Inej inhaled sharply, letting her eyes drift shut. The wind tousled her dark hair, short and sharp, just like her. It tickled her cheeks, her lips, her nose, but she pushed the sensation away, letting herself feel weightless.

Her feet were poised on the old balance beam, dark toes curled onto it for support. She took another breath, and then she was off, one flip, two, three, landed, lift off - legs tucked, spinning, straighten the legs - a swift and sure impact.

Her arms were curled upward, her back arched gracefully. The wind ruffled her hair, soft yet relentless, just like her. It covered her cheeks, her eyes, her nose. She let it engulf her. Here, she was no one. She was everyone. 

She let her pose break, stretching the thickly corded muscles of her thighs, her calves. She twisted, muscles in her taut stomach tightening, the joints in her back cracking in deep succession. 

No, she wasn't everyone. Nor was she no one. She was Inej Ghafa and she would not be forgotten. Not easily, anyway.

"Inej! The Brekker boy is here," her mother called, and Inej sighed, her eyes finally opening.

"Alone?" she asked, her voice soft, but she was old friends with the wind, and it carried it far enough for her.

"No, no, he's with Nina, oh, and the darling Fahey boy."

Her cheeks broke into a grin, the corners of her mouth obliging, pushing them upward like her faithful springboards. Her mother would adopt Jesper Fahey, if she could. "I'll be right there," Inej promised, digging her toes into the grass.

"No, I'm just sending them through," and Inej didn't have to turn her head to see the dismissive gesture her mother was making.

Kaz, Nina, and Jesper. An odd grouping. What could that fortell? It was almost too easy. Kaz needed something, but it was something she'd need to be guided into - where Nina came in. Jesper, well, he was probably there to watch the drama unfold, his guise being that he could help distract Inej's parents.

They hadn't had a job in a couple weeks - so she figured this must be something good. Especially if Kaz didn't call first, just showed up on the Ghafa's front stoop. It must be incredibly good then, because he knew that she didn't care to conduct business at her house. Not around her parents, anyway.

She picked up the towel she'd discarded earlier, rubbing it across her neck and throat and down her arms. What could be so important….

She heard the back door as it slid open this time - then again, she hadn't really missed it the first time. There was a low, long whistle, and a, "Looking good, Ghafa!"

Inej laughed, turning a sharp, one-fingered gesture on Jesper. He was a tall boy, which anyone would notice first, but it was something Inej, at her low stand point, always saw. His quicksilver eyes made their way up and down her comically, and she couldn't help but flick her hip his way as she walked to join them.

He pressed the back of his wrist against his forehead, "Lord above," he cried dramatically. "She's resorted to the hips, and I can only resist for so long."

"Good to see you too, Jes," she said, up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek.

"You know, you're more than welcome to swing those hips my way," another voice called. "I mean, if Jesper's going to complain."

Inej's smile grew wider as arms looped around her shoulders, and lips were dropped onto her own. "Hey, babe," Nina Zenik mumbled against Inej's twisted lips. 

Inej's arms rested on Nina's thick hips. There was something both smooth and rough about the lines of her body, and it was something Inej loved. Her hair, a thick coil whose color was not unlike the toasted foods the girl enjoyed so, was tugged back in a lazy bun, but strands fell out, framing her face, her apple-round cheeks, her dark, copper skin.

"Yes, we know, you're both disgustingly in love with one another, but do you have to expose this lonely heart to your displays of affection every time?" Jesper said, equal parts joke and sobriety in his words.

"You'll understand when you're older," Nina laughed as Inej pressed her rough lips against the corner of her mouth.

Finally, Inej turned to Kaz.

"I'd prefer you not greet me like that," he stated.

"I'm going to text every Dreg in my contacts and tell them to call you babe," Inej informed him solemnly, never breaking eye contact, never cracking a smile.

"And I'll make sure you never work another day in this town."

"Harsh words, sweetheart."

"Oh, I assure you it was a promise, dear."

Inej heard Jesper suck in a hard breath, practically felt him bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing - his movements were always so incredibly saturated.

She leveled her gaze at Kaz, but saw the mirth twinkling in his eyes, right beside the always pressnt hunger - for justice, money, revenge, whatever the day's special was.

"What can I do for you?" she finally asked.

"We've got a job."

"Well you don't pay casual visits, so that's what I figured. What are we talking about?"

"Small, probably no more than a level 5, but there's some scaling that I need you for."

She nodded. "And the catch?"

"There isn't one. It might land us a bigger contract, but it's nothing for you to be concerned with as of now."

"So why the reinforcements?"

"They're like strays, you feed them once and they always find their way back to you."

Inej huffed a laugh. "Nina?" she asked.

"Oh, he's not lying. I was on my way over already. Jesper?"

"There when he got the call."

"I see," Inej nodded. "When is it, then?"

"Tomorrow night, we'll meet at the Slat to do a quick run down of the plan. Should only take 3 hours tops."

"That's a wide berth."

"It's a little ways out of our…area of expertise."

Inej frowned, both Nina and Jesper following suit. 

"How far are we talking?" Jesper asked, arms crossing over his chest. His forearns were slight, but ridged quietly by muscle that he'd accrued from years wielding a bow. Given the right context, those arms could be down right deadly.

"The Slat, tomorrow, dusk. Inej, Jesper, I'll see you there. Nina, you aren't strictly needed for this, but I'm not foolish enough to turn down the skills you bring to the table, are you in?"

Inej shook her head before the laugh even left Nina's lips. "Me, a Zenik, free on a Thursday night? Yeah, okay, good one Brekker. You've got a sense of humor after all."

Thursday's were Nina and her parents one night a week to spend together. They had dinner, caught up on inter-family news, bonded. Or, bonding was what the Zeniks called it, in reality it was them trying to slyly cast a good light on the family career, hopefully convince their daughter to join.

Kaz's mouth twisted, the white scar across his lips dancing a dangerous tango. "I'd say afterwards but by the time you can get to the job we'll be done. Do your part by contacting Helvar, then."

Nina sighed. "That old grump isn't going to-"

"That 'old grump' owes me and this crew, and he knows it. We need wheels, he has them. Give him the information."

Nina sighed. "Anything else?"

If Kaz Brekker wasn't who he was, Inej would have thought the curl to his lip was humorous. 

"You know, that look," Jesper started. "Not usually good for anyone. Inej, I'm sure your parents would love to see my devilishly handsome face."

Nina slipped her arm through Jesper's. "And they'd love to see mine even more. Let's take our leave before we end up agreeing to put out fire with gasoline."

They started towards the house, heads ducked together trading frantic whispers.

"Alright Kaz, they're gone. Give me the real stuff."

He sighed, leaning against the handle of his cane, a sloping crow's head. "Inej," he muttered.

She crossed her arms. "My parents won't bother us for the next 5 minutes, Nina and Jes know something's up, but they don't want to get too involved yet. And I'm the only person who'll listen to you when you're being crafty, so: spill."

His gloved hands flexed. "The client pays, we deliver-"

"Don't give me that same old line of bullshit that you feed the newbies. Doesn't your spider deserve better?" she cooed mockingly - and if she had been anyone else, she'd have a finely crafted crow's head embedded in her eye socket.

"The client," Kaz began again with gritted teeth. "Is of relation to a prominent figure that may be of interest to us. We do this right, we might have an in."

She rolled her lip between her teeth. That's all she would get unless she sussed it up herself, and she knew that.

"Fine," she relented, jaw in the air. "I'll be there."

"I figured."

The thing about the Dregs was this: every member owed Kaz in one way or the other. Lives and limbs and prides could be attributed to Kaz Brekker, and they were repaid in punctuality. Showing up for a job. Doing your part. Money was a rare commodity, so they traded in other ways, their thieving codes as laws to guide them, their currency the weight of their word in half truths.

"You going to come in?" Inej finally asked.

"No. I've assembled everyone, but my work isn't done. I have to stop by Wylan's in-" he broke off, looking at his phone. "20." He cursed under his breath. "I've stayed too long, and I've still got to talk with Rotty-"

"Just send Jesper to Wylan's. I'm sure he'll be more than willing to oblige," she said, the edges of her mouth quirking up sharply, like the tips of her blades sitting a few feet away.

Kaz swung his cane leisurely. "I wasn't aware I was running a match making service," he rasped, heading off. 

Inej pursed her lips, something hissing in her gut. Kaz was favoring his leg heartily today, which meant he'd been ignoring it for days, which meant this was something much bigger than he was letting on.

She heaved a sigh, her legs spreading, then snapping like shears as she glided back to her beam, which always seemed to be calling to her. She pushed up with her arms, letting herself hang there, legs in a harsh split just between the line of her shoulders and the bracing of her arms. Quickly, she pulled that line upward, until she was in a handstand on the beam, her legs slowly coming back together like a weak magnet.

Her hair hung in her face, and she almost regretted cutting it from its old, long black ink spill to this harsher cheek swiping length, but she remembered how freeing it was to remove that weight, and she blew it out of her face lazily, tightening her grip.

The beam was old, the indentions of her fingers would take longer to leave the worn material once she released her grip, she knew. She'd lugged it into her backyard years ago, having plucked it from certain death at the hands of old age - patched it up over the years, learned it like she learned the moves to a routine.

Nevertheless, it was a good place to practice her skill, out in the openess of the wind and the sun - and an even better place to think.

"Inej! Nina's staying for dinner, why don't you get cleaned up and come help her set the table?"

Inej rolled her lip, deep in thought, but it didn't stop her from lowering her legs through the air - a ship's prow through the ocean - and shooting her mother a thumbs up.

Kaz wanted to hold back from her? Fine. He'd done it before plenty of times - just never with this type of time constraint; which was thought that weighed heavy, made her want to get to work as soon as she could.

No, there was no need for rushing. She was the Wraith, and with her Saints tucked in their sheaths at her sides, she'd soon know everything she wanted to and more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started writing this mid-Crooked Kingdom, and had nearly finished this chapter as I finished the book; so, needless to say, I'm very pumped about this fic!
> 
> My first work for the fandom, so bear with me as I try to grasp writing the characters and their dynamics. This is a different tone from what I usually write, so it's gonna take some adjustment.


End file.
